1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a process and system for the recovery of water from waste solutions, saline solutions, etc. by a modification of the absorption refrigeration process.
2. Prior Art Relating to the Disclosure
Recovery of substantially pure water from a variety of solutions is necessary and desriable for numerous applications; however, the energy requirements, capital costs and operating costs for achieving water recovery by evaporation and subsequent condensation using conventional systems restrict its application. Conventional evaporation processes generally take place at or near the atmospheric boiling point of water, at which temperature scaling and corrosion are accelerated above the rates normally encountered at room temperatures and lower.
In the absorption principle commonly used in refrigeration, the cooling effect is produced by the vaporization of liquids using heat absorbed from relatively low temperature (55.degree.-65.degree. F.) fluid. The absorption-refrigeration cycle commonly uses water as a refrigerant, the water used solely as a heat transfer medium to cool extraneous materials and reject heat in a closed loop cycle. This invention makes use of an absorption-refrigeration cycle modified to recover and remove water from solutions thereof. This is accomplished by the expedient of having the water solutions to be evaporated replace the refrigerant water and having it an open loop system. Although the absorption principle of refrigeration is well known, it has not been applied to the recovery of water as described.